Tuesday, February 2, 2016

You've been asking for it. Patiently, you waited. Well, here it is—the OFFICIAL and ONLY 100 Best Beer Bars in Austin, updated and all new for 2016. In honor of Ted Cruz's big win in Iowa I was going to give this list a TEXAS sized bump up to 125, but that would be ridiculous. We must be discerning with our choices, especially when it comes to beer. Not everyone can get a trophy. This list is only the best—the best 100! Enjoy and leave a comment about how terrible my list is. But remember, this is official.*UPDATE* Added Red Horn and Violet Crown Cinema. I was rightly called out on these two via Twitter—Red Horn especially. And I should also mention, brewery taprooms were not included in this list. Maybe my next list will be 100 Best Brewery Taprooms in Austin. *UPDATE #2* Kraft Beer megachain World of Beer is closing up shop (saw it on Facebook, has to be real), after less than a year in biz. Go back to Florida! I'll replace it with a neighborhood fave.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Barcelona

Nightcap time. Always needed when tourin' around. We stopped in a joint by our apartment called Dos Trece. According to their website: "a neighborhood restaurant by day and hip cocktail bar by night." Ok. Also, apparently it is a Mexican restaurant. So authentic. Mexican restaurants are only second in number to Irish pubs on this Earth. Red wine for Sofia and a Moritz beer for me. Moritz is like the official Catalan beer. In 2007, when we were in Barcelona, they were still making their comeback after reopening their brewery in 2004.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Barcelona

10/28/2007:Walking back to our place around lunch we were hungry, very hungry. When you are very hungry you are prone to making terrible dining choices. This was one of those times, but not really. La Moños is a crusty little place, packed with loco locals. Nothing fancy. For 6 euro you get full and a bottle of wine. We could not complain. The wine was not the highlight, but intoxicating.

We both got the paella to start. It was dry, but not altogether untasty.

My cod in orange sauce with potatoes and onions. Again, not bad.

Sofia's merluza frita. Ok. She seemed to like it.

My ice cream. Whatever. I am so glad documented this. I bet you are drooling looking at this plastic cup of ice cream.

Sofia's arroz con leche.

Actually we really did love this place. We were the only tourists, which is not always a good thing. I mean I never really looked at us as tourists. We were travelers. Yeah, travelers. At the end of our trip we flew out of Barcelona. We stopped in here again. But that comes later. We are just getting started in Spain (sorry Jason). And remember this was back in 2007. We've been all kinds of places since then, but whatever, I have photos of this trip. So we are gonna keep going until we are done. #throwbackthursday

Pre-iphone (me having an iphone) traveling.

So if you are ever in Barcelona and you want something local, cheap, crazy, sorta gross, but not really terrible:

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Barcelona

We arrived late to Barcelona. We dropped our bags at our apartment and went for beer and snack. Random stop in Plaça Reial (Plaza Real): Cerveceria Canarias. We slugged down some half litres of Estrella Damm.

Had some patatas alioli. Pretty tasty.

The next morning I had a big ole gringo-ish breakfast at La Gloria Restaurant near cathedral on Via Laietana.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

I am gonna finish this shit if it kills me. So what if this trip happened 8 years ago. . . So what if we have been back to Europe since this trip. . . This is the project I started. And I am gonna finish. At least you don't have to stare at that Total Wine post anymore. I know you have been here since May, just waiting for me to blog. Well the summer is over. Here it is. #Waybackwednesday